The Hamptons, Through the Lens of NOMAD

Having transformed iconic destinations such as Capri, St. Moritz, and Abu Dhabi into exclusive hubs for collectible design, NOMAD has now arrived in the prestigious New York Hamptons, launching its first-ever U.S. edition at The Watermill Center in Water Mill—one of the world’s leading institutions dedicated to contemporary artistic research, founded in 1992 by visionary theater director and artist Robert Wilson. This marks a new chapter for the traveling fair, which, in just nine years since its debut in 2017, has become one of the most coveted destinations for collectors worldwide. Behind its success is the vision of Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte, the Canadian-Italian architect and curator who redefined the very concept of the art and design fair by replacing conventional exhibition halls with historic residences, private villas, and remarkable architectural landmarks as immersive settings for leading international galleries.

J. Lohmann Gallery – Photo © Ivan Erofeev, courtesy of NOMAD

The result is an itinerant format in which collectible design takes center stage and every destination becomes an integral part of the narrative. If the Hamptons have represented a landmark of American artistic culture since the 1950s – thanks to figures such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, who made the region their home – The Watermill Center is an interdisciplinary laboratory devoted to experimentation and the cross-pollination of artistic languages through artist residencies, public programs, and an archive of more than 8,000 works. A place for those who seek, as Robert Wilson famously described it, “what no one else is doing.” For this American edition, NOMAD assembled an exceptional selection of galleries, including Gallery FUMI, The Future Perfect, K’ab Juun, KALEI NYC, Meritalia‘s Italian Radical Design, and The Spaceless Gallery, bringing together artists and designers whose site-specific installations seamlessly engage with the Center’s architecture and landscape.

Todd Merrill Studio instalaltion – Photo © Simon Leung

543 Broadway by Meritalia, design Gaetano Pesce – Photo © Charlie Rubin, courtesy of Kalei NYC

Among the highlights, Sébastien Léon’s outdoor sound sculpture The Echoes of Our Dreams creates an ever-evolving acoustic environment where ambient sounds, machine-generated language, and digitally transformed birdsong merge into a poetic meditation on the relationship between nature, humanity, and artificial intelligence. The Summer Pavilion, conceived by Jessica Gersten Design, unfolds as a sophisticated environment defined by artisanal materials, organic forms, sculptural furniture, and works by Nader Gammas, Maison Gerard, John Salibello, and Espasso, alongside a curated selection from the designer’s own collectible furniture collection. Meanwhile, Todd Merrill Studio presented a collector’s salon featuring John Procario’s sculptural lighting and his celebrated Sculpted Sofas upholstered in luxurious Dedar textiles; Markus Haase’s hand-carved Catena lighting series; and the monumental Golden Tree, an imposing eleven-foot sculpture by contemporary artist Laura Facey.

Crossing Thresholds by JK Art & Design – Photo © Ivan Erofeev, courtesy of NOMAD

Among the partners supporting NOMAD Hamptons were Giorgio Armani, Official Partner of the event, Sisley Paris, Abu Dhabi Culture, and Ginori 1735.
“Each edition of NOMAD responds to a place with a strong identity,” explains Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte. “The Hamptons hold particular significance as a region historically shaped by artistic experimentation. This edition was conceived as a meeting point between an international perspective and a deeply rooted cultural landscape.”
In doing so, NOMAD continues to redefine the language of collectible design, transforming it into a cultural and sensory experience in which architecture becomes inseparable from the works themselves—an exclusive dialogue where the many voices of contemporary creativity converge.